Dutch bassist Bob van Luijt (centre) previews his trio gig with German pianist Florian Weber (left) and American drummer Billy Martin (right) – Vortex October 7th

UPDATE 7th OCTOBER – DUE TO WORK PERMIT PROBLEMS THIS GIG IS CANCELLED
When I was thirteen, I lived in a small village in the Netherlands with just one small CD shop. The guy in the store showed me and my friends (of course these friends were also band members) a new album by John Scofield called: A Go Go which featured the great trio Medeski, Martin and Wood. Ever since, I’ve been a big fan and follower of this group and their music.

As time went by, I studied in Holland and Boston, did a lot of different musical projects with others and my own bands. It was during one of these projects (with Dutch trumpet player Eric Vloeimans) that I met Florian Weber. Flo (as we call him) is one of those guys I clicked with immediately. I asked him to join my group Square Orange (album release October 25th!) but we always kept the idea of doing something with a trio, and this is when Billy Martin’s name came up. I called Flo and asked him: “Wouldn’t it be awesome to ask Billy to work with us?”. Needless to say Flo liked the plan as much as I did and when Billy played with his group Wicked Knee in the Bimhuis in Amsterdam I approached him to ask him to work with us.

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It happened. We are on tour in the first week of October and will be at the Vortex on the 7th.

See you all there!

(Bob van Luijt brought  a trio including Cuong Vu to the Vortex in February 2012)